Published: September 19, 2008 01:13 am      

Eagles hit the road looking for first victory

BEREA — For the 0-3 Eagles, hitting the road might just be a good thing.

“It’s less of a distraction for the kids,” Madison Southern coach David Brumley said. “We can just go on the road and concentrate on the task at hand and not get caught up with who’s there and who’s not and just play football.”

Southern will go on the road tonight, when they will face off against Harrison County (1-2) in Cynth-iana. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

The Thoro-breds are coming off of two tough setbacks, an 18-10 loss to Marion County last week and a 44-0 loss to George Rogers Clark Sept. 5.

“They play good, hard football,” Brumley said of Harrison County. “They spread you out on offense. They sometimes go four wide with an empty backfield. On defense, they like to pressure quite a bit.”

Harrison County senior quarterback Van Isaac has completed 56 percent of his passes for 516 total yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. The Thoro-breds are led on the ground by junior running back Josh Moss, who has rushed 37 times for 222 yards and three touchdowns.

“We’re going to put a little pressure on the quarterback,” Brumley said. “They like to throw the ball around a little bit. Hopefully we can get some picks in the secondary. They need to step up and make some plays for us defensively.”

Southern is coming off of a 28-6 loss to district rival Rockcastle County last week. The Eagles scored their first points of the season after junior running back Rico Brown ran a kickoff back for a score. They have been outscored 137-6 on the year.

So, obviously, one of the keys for the Eagles will be to get something going offensively early.

“We need to have something positive happen earlier in the game to build momentum,” he said. “We need to get off to a quick start. We’ve been lacking that the last few weeks.”

The biggest question for the Eagles will be who is under center. Brumley said junior quarterback Chris Coccari is still not 100 percent back from the ankle injury that kept him from starting last week. The probable starter for the Eagles will be freshman quarterback Chris Roberts, who had 12 passing yards last week.

“I like what we’ve seen out of our freshman quarterback,” Brumley said. “He’s going to continue to get a lot of reps with the offense.”